Crystalline Constellations

S2 E7: An Adversarial Recurrence [Part 1/2]

During the following weekend after the snow day which our main group of heroes spent together along with some of the other Hetalia nations, all of this aforementioned snow had melted by now, both in the human world and in the Hetaverse, and it was still February at this time so the weather in the U.K of both universes remained at a cold temperature, only allowing a brief oasis of sunshine to reveal itself through the dense curtain of clouds every now and then. 

This evening on which the chapter you're currently reading is set, the city of London as a whole was still lively with activity, although this status was about to commence its daily ritual of coming to an end due to the time inching closer and closer towards 6 PM, and therefore it was the time of day between the daylight hours and the nighttime hours. This meant that as a result, any minute now most of the people in the city would be heading home for the evening - some of the markets and shops in general anticipated this, so they were soon to be initiating their own daily ritual of closing up for the night while at the same time some of the pubs and restaurants would be opening to accomodate the couples out on dates and the late-night booze drinkers. It's kinda like that brief moment in between when one side of the world goes to sleep and when the other side wakes up; London was quite a big city, so it was like it was a whole planet on its own in a way. 

Jenny and Starfire had taken advantage of this factor, deciding to go out while some of the people in London were in the process of returning to their homes, making it less busy. The former had taken the telekinetic one out for a walk around the part of the city surrounding their blocks of flats so as to show her the local area, deciding to not use Jen's car because of wanting to take a slow, scenic amble. They'd taken a walk down the side of the Thames, and at one point they even managed to catch a glimpse of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament from across the river.
It was still the Winter, so obviously there was a shorter amount of daylight hours, meaning by the time the duo had decided to call it a day and head back home to their flats, it was nearing 7 PM so the sun was just beginning to sink down into its warm, cosy bed, namely the horizon. They continued on the route back, which was in the East direction, leaving Westminster and passing Lambeth, and took a few shortcuts through alleyways people often used which weren't dangerous. The time of day once again meant there were almost no other people about in some of the non-central places.

The amiable chattering between the 2 friends, when they took another of these shortcuts, was still carrying on as it had done for the last few minutes, making them break out into a little bit of laughter whenever something amusing cropped up in the conversation, but Jenny stopped stock-still in her tracks and held up one of her hands slightly higher than her waist to silence her companion for a minute. Being in places like alleys (even if they were safe and completely devoid of gangs like this one and if she was with a friend) during sundown put her on the receiving end of an eerie atmosphere, and consequently in those situations she was more alert about every inch of her surroundings. On top of that, along with the enhancements of her physical strength and reflexes from her Zensairan powers came more awareness about the things around her, so in total her bubble of cognitive detection was greatly expanded compared to normal right now.

"Jen, what's up?" Starfire asked her, noticing that the Briton's eyes were narrowed fractionally in concentration from trying to work out if the goosebumps on her arms were indeed telling her what she thought they were trying to tell her.

"I don't know how to fully explain this, but I think just for a moment I felt someone very nearby move." The younger one of the pair looked around them for any other signs of life there, now being even more alert and feeling the previously mentioned goosebumps emit a powerful pulse wave of nervousness throughout her limbs.

There was silence between both of them for a few seconds. It was the deafening type which only intensified the sinister atmosphere, and neither of the young women knew what to do or say at this moment in time.